Comcast’s iPad, Android apps to get live TV, on-demand shows

Comcast subscribers will be able to watch on demand content via their iPads, …

iPad and Android tablet users will soon be able to watch 3,000 hours of on-demand content from Comcast, including numerous TV shows and movies. Additionally, Comcast customers will be able to stream live news and TV shows to their devices later this year, the cable giant announced Wednesday.

The on-demand functionality will come to Comcast's Xfinity TV app on the iPad first—"in the coming weeks," according to Comcast—and Android-powered tablets later this year. Comcast subscribers will be able to access a plethora of content anywhere they can get an Internet connection, and the company says this is just the beginning; "thousands" of additional programming options will become available in the coming weeks as well.

"Live streaming and the play now feature on our Xfinity TV app are two important pieces of our strategy to deliver any content to any device, any time," Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said in a statement.

Comcast kicked off its efforts to take premium content online in 2009 when it started testing its On Demand Online service. Those who already pay for Comcast service could be the first to stream content from HBO and Cinemax—not to mention many newly released movies—to their computers, but only if they already paid extra to subscribe to those channels.

That will still be the case with Comcast's iPad app and the forthcoming Android app—without a subscription to Comcast's services, the apps aren't all that useful. If you do subscribe, though, you can use the app as a remote to change channels, browse through listings, and even program a Comcast DVR. With the addition of on-demand services and eventually live streaming, the apps will become even more useful to those with tablets.